electron configurations and unpaired electrons

[Roma Vashi 3L]

hi,
For some of the textbook problems, some questions asked for the electron configuration of ions & # of unpaired electrons. How do we know if there are unpaired electrons?

[Sara_you 2D]

I answer these questions by drawing our the orbital diagram so i can see the electrons in each sub orbital and which ones are unpaired.

[Jolene Robles 2H]

Hello,

To know whether there are unpaired electrons, it is helpful to write out the electron configurations orbitals, which is when you draw the arrows (spins) up or down depending on the element you are told to do. An unpaired electron is where you will see that it is single and only one spin going up. I cant really draw it out here but an example would be one orbital is with a spin going up and another spin going down while in another orbital only one spin is going up and this would be the unpaired electron.